Protecting Prostitutes

It's an industry that simply would not exist if there were not a demand for it. It is not women who insist that they must sell their bodies for profit; it is men who impel the situation by their ingrained habit of predatorily searching out women who will fulfill their need for quick and non-committal sexual activity to satisfy them briefly with no strings attached other than the exchange of money.

If some women choose to enter this particular field of commerce, it is surely their choice, for whatever reasons, whether reluctantly or deliberately. In the process, however, they are no less citizens of the country than any other. They have deviated from the norm of societal expectations, but only to a degree. That men believe they can be serviced in this way and know they will find agents to satisfy them makes it a norm of a type.

The simple fact is, it is not only social deviants, criminals, low-life's, juveniles, misogynists and the like who consort with prostitutes. It is also highly respected members of the community; police, judges, doctors, financiers, lawyers, who deftly and under cover, look after their needs as they see fit, and the use of paid sex workers is often how they see fit. To complement their otherwise-staid and unsatisfying lives.

They do face the danger of sexually transmitted diseases, just like the sex workers, and of being discovered, but these details don't seem to stop the trade. The women, on the other hand, face those dangers, but they also, because they are street workers, largely, face the dangers of violence from those who reason that no one will much notice the absence of an unprotected sex worker.

So yes, any law that can be altered to give protection to sex workers in Canada, to decriminalize any aspect of the process, may benefit them and benefit society as a whole, by extension. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does guarantee "life, liberty and security" of all Canadians; it does not exempt sex workers.

Which is what Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Court of Justice agreed to when she found the country's prostitution laws: " force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person", when she struck down those particular sections of the Criminal Code.

Those who haven't much use for her opinion - including the government, which has appealed her ruling - point to other jurisdictions which have dealt with the problems in other ways. Sweden, where sex purchasers - what are called "Johns" here - are fined, based on income, and as well spend up to a year in prison.

Swedish police claim that their laws have caused a diminishment of sex workers in their society, and fewer deleterious incidents. But there are those who insist the problem has simply been forced underground. Sweden feels its response to this age-old dilemma is far superior to that of Holland where laws completely liberalized prostitution.

Amsterdam has seen a swelling of their prostitute population, and an uptick in trafficking in women; a total expansion of 25% since liberalization. Those regulated by Holland's laws, however, claim that their lives have not been eased, but made more complex because of government licensing fees, taxes and regulations, straitening the situation for sex workers.

Those interested in improving lives of Canadian sex workers look instead to New Zealand where laws guarantee women both safety measures and health and occupational protection, effectively guarding against exploitation. In a high-risk occupation, and given the tragedies of vulnerable women susceptible to violence on the streets, we should be doing nothing less for our own.